Leaks!

As everyone knows by now, we had our roof replaced recently.  It was literally pouring through Desmond's ceiling on one particularly bad (raining Very hard) night.  The glass light cover in his room was absolutely FILLED with water, right over the bulbs... scary. So we had to bite the bullet and replace the roof.  We were hoping to hold out another year or so as Marnie had just went back to work and money isn't so abundant, but it couldn't wait.  My tar patching wasn't holding at all (and in hindsight, I think I made it worse from walking around on it), so I had to go up and nail tarps down until we could find someone to do it, which helped a lot and even stopped it temporarily.  I haven't been up in the attic since the new roof and since all of the water came through, but I suppose I should so that to make sure there's no mould or other problems occurring from that.  I have yet to patch the roof from the water leaks -- add it to the list!

Well now that it's done, we're happy.  No stress over the winter about it failing, which would probably be the worst possible time to have to do a roof as most businesses shut down over the winter. Some still do it, but I'm sure there's a premium for it.  The guy who did the roofing mentioned that there was no rotten pieces of wood to replace and that it wasn't wet at all, or hardly at all, so that was also a relief.  I guess my tarps did a decent job for the 2 weeks to find someone.  From all the wetness in the ceiling, we're finding that it's cracked a lot at all the seams.  The living room is bad and maybe the worst of it all, unfortunately.  When we moved in, there were 2 cracks in the living room ceiling that we had fixed, and it's cracked at those 2 places again. There also a few water marks, and paint bubbling in certain spots and then of course the kids bedrooms.  A complete PITA, but I suppose it could have been a lot worse.

Before and After!

 

Notice the front of the house looks fine? The lady replaced the front half of the house and not the back for some unknown reason - cheapskate? had she done the whole roof, we'd likely have another 5-10 years out of it since the front was fine.

 

Good riddance red roof!

First day of PreSchool...

Violet at her first day of Pre-School at the ECEC on the campus of U of W.  There may have been some tears (mine, not hers) and there may have been lots of hugs and kisses (from me to her).  Hope all went well.  I will pick her up at 3:30.  Wearing her new backpack, with a spare pair of shoes and a drink in box in it!  Minor emergency before we left as Cat was missing from the backpack, but don't you worry, she still needs mommy for some things! I found cat in a jiffy and off we went!

This is her in front of her cubby - the one in the corner, she wanted to make sure I knew she was standing in front of it...it was not the one beside her.
I ask you, is she really old enough for school?

BC Bound!

We're going to BC with the kids for 2 weeks!  We didn't think it was going to happen this year because flights were kind of expensive and the timing wasn't working out, but we found decent flights and bit the bullet.... we really wanted the Asbury's to meet Desmond before he turns into a little boy! (Which he is already...) :(
I'll be splitting my time between vacation and working in Vancouver and Edmonton, so the two weeks will go by really fast, I'm sure.
REALLY looking forward to it!!   ...and a little bit nervous about how Desmond will do with a long flight on our laps - the kid wants to go go go!

Camping, crawling and a family picnic

Desmond is growing up so quickly.  I can't believe he is 9 months old.  He is reaching movement milestones a little bit faster than Violet.  Des started crawling forward on June 13th, just before he was 8 months old.  He is already pulling up and walking along the furniture.  Won't be long now until he is walking.  I don't know if it is a boy - girl thing or a Des - Vi thing, but he is into EVERYTHING!  When Violet started to crawl, she would go places, but you could surround her with toys and she would sit and play.  Not Des, he is on the move, going over, through and around things.  He is tipping the scale at about 21.5 lbs now.  Vi had a recent weight gain and is now about 27lbs and almost 38 inches tall.
It seems so silly because they are still so small but I want time to pass a little more slowly.  I am going to miss them like crazy when I go back to work.
My crazy S-I-LTeresa and Branko invited us camping for the weekend of July 7-10.  I met up with them on Thursday and Andrew came down Friday.  It was so hard having a little crawler on my hands without a playpen during Friday.  It was the little things like going to the bathroom (we all had to go - I had to hold Des while squatting, thank goodness I have been working out! LOL).  Quite a sight to behold I am sure. It was a great weekend.  Violet loved the marshmellows on the campfire and we decided that if we can't make a vacation to BC work we might camp again at the end of the summer (fingers crossed for BC).
Des is a little chatter box now.  It is still mostly noises, a few words here and there.  It sounds like he says 'up' and he does say mama and dada but very selectively and not necessarily at the appropriate times so I think it is still just babble.  He has not started signing back to us yet but looks at us so intently when we sign at him.  Especially when Vi does it.  So cute!  He eats like a horse, this must be just he beginning as he gears up for a life eating us out of house and home.  He has started to feed himself - so much fun to watch this skill develop as he wants to get it into his mouth as fast as he can but his two point pinch is not that great.  He gets the food item in or on his hand and then smushes it up to his face.  If he misses his mouth, no worries, he just pushes his hand around until the food hits it! 
We have been watching our friend's pool again this summer and Violet has really improved in her swimming skills.  She can't swim unassisted yet but will jump into a noodle and kick around.  She will go under when she jumps but not by choice when she is swimming and she still doesn't love the back float position.  Des was hilarious in the pool, he cried for the longest time but now he has turned it around and I think he really enjoys it.  We bought Vi a suit with flotation padding in it and she loved it yesterday.  She can use her arms to swim now, so hopefully that will help her along.  Also got Des a floating ring that he can sit in, went well yesterday at the pool so hopefully he continues to like it too.  
Violet went on a special outing with her Granny two weeks ago to see Winnie the Pooh.  They went for lunch with Pop and then she and Granny went to see the movie.  What a special treat.  Violet was so well behaved and told me about the movie - well really she doesn't remember much.  She remembered they fell into a hole and there was no one at the top!  She did remember a number of the characters in the movie, Piglet, Tigger, Owl and Pooh. She didn't there there was someone called Christopher Robin (LOL).
A few weeks ago, Andrew's cousin Bridget and her husband Rolf invited us out to their farm in Listowel for a family picnic.  It was a great time with family.  Violet was in love with Gina's daughter Abby, followed her around A LOT!  Thank goodness Abby loves kids!  Des was great, he was happy to see everyone and  loved the nap in the hammock (oh wait - that was me that really loved the nap)!

 Final gymnastics day.  Violet enjoyed it so much and loved her teacher but going to do swimming and dance in the fall. 

 Mommy made me a new bib!  Leather!

 Checking myself out in the mirror after a bath.

 My vampire teeth at Canada Day.

 Des and Auntie Candace.

 Snuggling with Lia at the BBQ.

 Hanging with Abby - in LOVE with Abby.

 Chillin' with mom.

 Playing minute to win-it games at the BBQ.

 Mommy trying to capture my changing eye colour...will it be green or brown?

 Felt like Echo needed to make an appearance.

 Look at me pulling up on anything!

 

Again trying to capture the changing eye colour...

New Teeth, a trip to the zoo and the cutest 2 and a half year old - EVER!

Des broke two new teeth on the top, the jury is out if they are the front teeth or the ones beside the two front teeth?  Seems crazy that we can't tell, but it's the truth.  Need to get a photo to take a poll.*
We went to the zoo on May 29th and it turned out to be a really great day.  We purposely went early in the year thinking if the weather is not quite as warm, the animals will be out to play and frolic.  So wrong - it turned out to be a beautiful day (28) which is a little warm for the animals.  It was a good choice to go in May as not a lot of people were there so we were able to see all of the animals and did not have to wait at any displays.  We had a great day with the girls.  We went with Carey and Chris (seasoned zoo 'veterans') and their girls Cora and Mya.  All in all it was a great day.  My favourite part was the giraffe enclosure.  I love giraffes.  We all decided to go on Safari to Africa once the kids are all in University (only 17 more years - LOL).  I really want to go to Timini, the giraffe hotel in Kenya see: http://www.giraffemanor.com/ So it is all settled that we will break the bank to visit - Africa 2028!

 Beautiful female Rhino lying in the mud.  One of the first animals we saw as we entered the zoo. 

 This is a statue of a monkey that died as a result of someone throwing 'people food' into him.  So cute, but Violet didn't want to sit with him (I think she was afraid) so I got in the photo with Vi, Cora and Mya. 

 Peacocks roam freely on the zoo grounds.  So beautiful.  Cora and Mya were a little bit afraid and Carey and Chris had to execute operation distraction every time one came around. 

 Vi and me in front of the elephants. 

 These are pygmy hippos, the big ones were in hiding!  I think their enclosure was being cleaned or renovated. 

 Gorillas.  Beautiful.  So amazing to see the mommy playing with her youth.  So much like humans. 

 The girls loved the penguins.  They are new to the zoo this year.  Carey said they replaced the seal exhibit.  So cute.  They swim - SO FAST-

 Vi running at the penguin exhibit.  I could just eat her up!

 My favourite...

 Des was so great at the zoo.  Didn't fuss, slept a lot but did bite mommy hard during a feeding.  Hope that ends soon.

 Snuggling with my sweaty boy.

 Polar bear was doing a repetitive loop in his pool which was amazing for us to see him swim and move but a little bit concerning that he is very, very bored.  Just kept doing to same circle in the water. 

 Spider monkeys - they use their tail like an additional limb.  So neat to watch them climb and swing - the tail has independent movement and grip. 

 Vi loving Swiss Chalet after the zoo.

And crashing on the way home.  Granny gave the kids some money to buy something at the zoo - Violet picked the pink Monkey and we all (well - we all know how much I love giraffes) picked the giraffe for Des. Thanks Granny!

Violet is going through yet another cutie pie stage right now.  She dances all the time when we aren't around.  We are going to try to catch it on camera.  Yesterday I saw her dancing in a circle around Desmond when they were alone in her room.  So cute.  She is saying some very funny things too.  Often repeating us but we keep saying we need to write them down because we are going to forget them - and I already have - will need to remember some and post them!


*Update since this was written - Des has an upper middle tooth breaking now so it turns out he did get the ones beside his front teeth first.

A cold spring so far...

Spring in Ontario has been cold this year.  Yesterday was my first day taking the kids outside to play on the blanket (something I love to do in the summer).  Violet helped me with some yard work and then with dinner.  She cut the ends off the beans with the knife Granny gave her.  I was so glad it worked because when I tried to teach her to break the ends off, she basically broke the bean in half.  She was a great helper.  Here are a few recent photos.
We had Carey and Chris and the girls over on Sunday to watch Tangled.  They all got to paint their nails and watch the movie.  Then we had a great dinner together followed by lot of book reading.  All three girls love to read!

 Here is Vi helping me with dinner yesterday.  Cutting the beans.

 Vi snuggled up to pop after gymnastics.

 Violet loves to do my workouts with me.  Here Andrew caught her doing one of my least favourite moves on the ball.  Vi looks like she likes it!

 Snapped a few shots of Des today when we were playing on the floor.  He is such an interactive little boy.  Very destructive, not sure what we are in for when he starts to move around.  It cracks me up how differently he plays with the same baby toys Vi had.  Ripping off the musical animals from above him, etc. 

 Who wouldn't love that face?

Finally got a shot of Vi and Des in the sweaters Chris' mom gave us at Christmas, now I need to send a LONG overdue thank you card.